{{short description|American Author and Business Consultant|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Infobox person | name = Rodger Dean Duncan | image = Rodger Dean Duncan 2025.jpg | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | death_date = | death_place = | political_party = Independent | other_party = | relatives = | spouse = Rean Robbins | children = | occupation = Business consultant, author, professional speaker | education = Baylor University<br/>Brigham Young University<br/>Purdue University | signature = | website = https://leadershop.net | footnotes = }}

'''Rodger Dean Duncan''' (born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is an American author and business consultant whose work focuses on leadership, human performance, and the strategic management of change.

==Consulting== After working at F.I. duPont, Glore Forgan & Co.,<ref>F.I. duPont, Glore Forgan & Co, Retrieved from: [https://web.archive.org/web/20080308235409/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876994,00.html Time Magazine]</ref> Duncan started his consulting career in 1972. His first client was the Executive Office of the President of the United States. He served as communication counsel to cabinet officers in two White House administrations. He later served in a similar capacity for Republican U.S. Senators Richard Lugar, Orrin Hatch, and Howard Baker.<ref name="DPT">"Duncan Brings Personal Touch to Communications Consultation", THE JOURNAL RECORD, Dolan Media Company MN, 1989. Retrieved from: [https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-5480668 Duncan Brings Personal Touch]{{dead link|date=July 2021}}</ref>

Another of Duncan's early corporate clients was the Campbell Soup Company, which hired him in 1978 to head the company's global communications operations.<ref name="DPT" />

Since the early 1980s, Duncan's consulting work has focused on leadership development, organizational culture, human performance, and change management issues. His private sector clients have included IBM, American Airlines, Eli Lilly and Company, Consolidated Edison of New York, Hallmark Cards, Sprint, Black & Veatch, eBay, Texas Instruments, and many others. In the public sector, Duncan has served the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the United States Army.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Duncan Worldwide Case Studies |url=https://leadershop.net/case-studies/ |access-date=2025-11-25 |website=LeaderSHOP |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Education== Duncan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Baylor University where he studied American literature and psychology. At Baylor he was active in student government, president of his senior class, president of the Sigma Tau Delta literary society, and an honor student.<ref>Baylor University Alumni Directory 2006 Edition, Baylor University, Waco Texas</ref>

He earned a Master of Arts in communications degree at Brigham Young University, where he also served on the faculty in the Communications Department and was managing director of University Publications.<ref>Brigham Young University Alumni Directory, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah</ref>

Duncan earned a Ph.D. in organizational communication at Purdue University. He also served on the Purdue faculty, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses.<ref>Purdue University Alumni Directory, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana</ref>

==Early career== While an undergraduate at Baylor University, Duncan started a career in journalism as a staff writer for ''The Waco Tribune-Herald''.<ref name="CS">Citations Sought</ref> Duncan later served as religion editor of ''The Salt Lake Tribune''.<ref name="CS"/>

In early 1968 Duncan joined the reporting staff at ''The Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' where he covered business and politics.<ref name="CS"/> His coverage of the Texas gubernatorial campaign that year, as well as his reporting on the national presidential campaign, attracted the attention of Jim Lehrer, who was then a young editor at ''The Dallas Times Herald''. Lehrer persuaded Duncan to move to Dallas, where he continued to cover politics but also served as an investigative reporter.<ref name="CS"/> As a young journalist, Duncan interviewed people from a range of backgrounds, including U.S. president Lyndon Johnson,<ref>Fort Worth Star-Telegram</ref> comedian Jack Benny,<ref name="SLT">Salt Lake Tribune</ref> Baroness Maria von Trapp,<ref name="SLT"/> cardiac surgery pioneer Michael DeBakey,<ref>Dallas Times Herald</ref> historian Arnold Toynbee,<ref name="SLT"/> pollster George Gallup,<ref>Modern Maturity</ref> artist Norman Rockwell,<ref name="FWMGM">Family Weekly Magazine, Grit Magazine</ref> and anthropologist Margaret Mead.<ref name="FWMGM"/>

Duncan's reporting earned awards from the American Bar Association and the Associated Press.<ref name="CS"/> At the age of 24, he was hired as editor of both ''The Texarkana Gazette'' and ''The Texarkana Daily News''. One of the reporters he hired to work with him in Texarkana was Stanley R. Tiner,<ref name="CS"/> who later would lead ''The Sun Herald'' newspaper in Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi, to the Pulitzer Prize.<ref name="CS"/>

== Writing == In addition to his editing and reporting, Duncan was also a freelance writer. His articles appeared in a range of newspapers, including ''The Christian Science Monitor'', ''The New York Times'', ''The National Observer'', and ''The Denver Post''. He also wrote for magazines such as ''Parade'', Family Weekly, ''Boys' Life'', ''Writers Digest'', and ''The Saturday Evening Post''.<ref name="CS" />

As a young journalist, Duncan wrote “Tongue in Cheek,” a column that was syndicated nationally to small and medium-sized newspapers.<ref name="CS" /> Today, Duncan publishes a blog that focuses on leadership and performance improvement issues.<ref>{{Cite web |title=LeaderSHOP Blog |url=https://leadershop.net/blog/ |access-date=2025-11-25 |website=LeaderSHOP |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2002, Duncan wrote ''Leadership for Saints'', a book intended for lay leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but also applicable for a wider audience.<ref name="SLT" />

In 2012, he published ''Change-friendly Leadership: How to Transform Good Intentions Into Great Performance''. The book quickly became an international bestseller and won several awards. Duncan is also a regular contributor (more than 700 columns) to Forbes.com, a platform that reaches more than 125 million people each month. In early 2025 he launched a podcast called [https://leadershop.net/podcast/ LeaderSHOP]. His guests include well-known thought leaders such as Guy Kawasaki, Dorie Clark, Marshall Goldsmith, Amy Edmondson, and Bill George.

==Family== Duncan is the second of Marion Claude Duncan and Helen Colleen Stone Duncan's four children. He is descended from the family of George Rogers Clark, a prominent American military officer during the American Revolutionary War. His older brother is Stephen M. Duncan, who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense under U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and is a recognized expert on national security issues.<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?q=Stephen+M+Duncan&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGLL_en Stephen M. Duncan Bio]</ref>

Duncan lives with his wife Rean Robbins in their family home just outside Kansas City, Missouri. They are parents of four grown children and have 12 grandchildren.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://leadershop.net/ LeaderSHOP]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Rodger Dean}} Category:Living people Category:1944 births Category:Latter Day Saints from Oklahoma Category:Baylor University alumni Category:Brigham Young University alumni Category:Purdue University alumni Category:Latter Day Saints from Texas Category:Latter Day Saints from Missouri Category:Latter Day Saints from Indiana